


Hi, let me see your left arm.

by FinalSwanSong



Series: Red vs. Blue, Soulmates [1]
Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-30
Updated: 2016-08-18
Packaged: 2018-07-28 06:32:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7628719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FinalSwanSong/pseuds/FinalSwanSong
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first words your soulmate says to you are on the inside of your left forearm from birth. Upon being said to you the words fade from your arm.</p><p>This can lead to interesting moments.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Better than nothing

The words just show up one day. Or at least they normally would. It was customary for children at the age of ten to have words show up on their inner left forearm. These words were supposedly (and historically proven to be) the first words your soulmate ever said to you. But that never meant any guarantees of you truly meeting that person. With over seven billion people in the world and you having to only find one there was always that small chance to never meet them. There have been cases recently of people who aren’t soulmates marrying and sleeping together. And although it’s allowed it’s still frowned upon and people steer clear.

So, if you’re lucky and get to meet the love of your life at some point during that life then their words will burn themselves into your skin on the tenth anniversary of your birth.

Church still remembers the words that had long since faded from Carolina’s arm. The disappointed look of his uncle when he saw that Carolina would be happy. Some people said he was like his uncle, those people were wrong. Yes, they had the same name. Yes, they both wore glasses and had green eyes. Yes, they were both nerdy and scrawny and absolute whizzes at math. But Church would never be like his uncle in terms of personality.

Church purposefully messed his dark black hair while his uncle kept his own clean and straight. Church swore as often and as spitefully as he could, a hobby that more often than not got him punished after he was moved into his uncle’s house. He had only been five when the go ahead was given and he was forced into the care of the Director. He was no longer his uncle, he was the Director. That much had been clear within seconds of stepping within the grand house that the Director and Carolina shared. Carolina was only two years older than him but that didn’t stop the Director from comparing the two of them at every opportunity.

‘Alpha, you should take more physical sports like Carolina’, ‘Carolina, you should be able to solve problems as quickly as Alpha’. It had led to a stressful upbringing. But once Carolina’s arm had become clear of words (she was sixteen at the time) it had gotten a lot worse. The Director forced Carolina to cover her arm at all times and, once he found out York’s name (through methods Church couldn’t even figure out), forbade her from seeing him. It was around this time that Church and Carolina had an understanding. Church would help Carolina sneak out and see her soulmate and help cover for her absence while Carolina promised to be kinder and to not hate Church’s soulmate (shame that, isn’t it?).

Church had only found out about the whole soulmate thing from his friend Tucker. The Director absolutely despised any kind of talk of soulmates and Carolina, likewise, was unlikely to answer, although she would turn him down in a far kinder way than that of her father. The schools were not allowed to teach or talk about the soulmates and the words linking them. It was always a politically touchy subject and the school preferred to not agitate any more parents than necessary.

Tucker was, in Church’s own words, a dick. But he was openly a dick and Church could tolerate that. Even if it led to some strange conversations about girls and some other odd stuff that Church could hardly think about without going into a relapse. But Tucker had been a gold mine in information about soulmates. He practically knew everything and kept it memorised like one would memorise the alphabet. It was from Tucker that Church had learnt about how the words grew in at the age of ten and vanished upon meeting your soulmate.

Tucker was two months older than Church, a fact that Church hated (almost) more than life itself. So when Tucker’s arm showed signs of letters (it had read ‘Blarg’, which mightily confused the two young boys) Church spent the next two months anxiously awaiting his body to catch up to what his mind was prepared for. Then, his birthday rolled around.

 

Church slowly rose in bed. It was a Saturday. A cold Saturday. He glanced over at his alarm clock and saw that it was almost ten o’clock. He hastily kicked off the blankets and pulled a small cobalt jacket over his arms before rushing to the door. The Director was not a fan of sleeping in, nor was he a fan of late people. Right now, Church was both. He ran for the stairs, legs pumping as he flew down the stairs. He took a small jump from the third last step and bolted into the living room. There was no one there. That was either a good thing or a really bad thing. He swung the door open as he took a more sedated pace to the dining room. He gently pushed the ajar door into the dining room before taking a deep breath and stepping in.

Carolina was at the table calmly drinking water while reading a book. The Director was nowhere to be seen. Church’s mind was still groggy from sleep and he took his seat by Carolina. She carefully put her book down on the blue table cloth and turned in her chair to face her cousin.

She allowed one of her rare grins to shine through and said, “Happy birthday cuz!”

Church blinked. Suddenly his brain finally kicked into gear and brought him back to his body. He pulled up his left sleeve and looked at the skin there. Blank. Bare. Completely empty. His face fell and he stared at the tablecloth pattern. There was a cough and he looked up. Carolina was still smiling at him.

“You do know that you were born in the evening right?” She gently prompted. Church’s face lit up and he felt slightly less nervous about upcoming events. She may be twelve but she’s still one of the scariest people Church knows. Carolina picked up her book again, satisfied her message had made it across. “The Director is out today. He got a call from the Counselor at seven and mentioned that he wouldn’t be back until six. You’ve got the whole day ahead of you without him. Some present.”

“Yeah,” Church mumbled as he silently planned out his day. He would probably just end up heading over to Tucker’s place to play some Halo. Maybe they’d be able to drag Grif and Simmons into their game. Hopefully they would be able to keep Sarge out of it, although they’d probably still end up with their pre-set Red and Blue teams anyway. Tucker complained that Church was a terrible shot but Simmons argued that Grif barely lifted a finger to play the game and just stood still.

Carolina dumped something onto his head. He couldn’t tell what it was, being in the dark did that to you. He pulled it off his head and looked at it. It was his jacket if his jacket was a few sizes larger. He questioningly looked over to Carolina and she ruffled his hair and went to leave. “Happy birthday,” She called as she popped out of the room. Church shrugged his jacket off and plopped his new one on. This one fit far more comfortably and Church felt that he could actually bend his arm in it.

Welp, no one has time for breakfast. Church got up from his seat and left to go drop in on Tucker.

 

Church increased his pace. He was going to be late. It was ten to six and Church was still on his way back from Tucker’s. Their Halo match had gone successfully. They had beaten the Reds 4 – 3 before Church had to leave. He’d traded insults to the Reds and waved his goodbye to Tucker as the remaining three players argued about what they were going to do about the team imbalance. The ground and streets slowly started to blend into monotony as he made his way back home. He checked his watch to see just how late he was going to be. But as he dragged his left wrist up into easier view something caught his attention. His new jacket was looser and the small sag in the sleeve that he would grow into had drooped. He could see letters.

They were pitch black. Black as the night. Church snagged the end of his sleeve and pulled it up his arm, not caring that he was standing in the middle of the road. He read what could possibly be the most important words in his life.

‘Out of the way asshole!'

_Well. I guess it’s better than nothing._ Church thought to himself. He smiled down at the words before lowering his sleeve and continuing his way home.

 

Church shouldered his bag and shoved his way out of the cramped classroom. That had been an hour of pure hell. Maybe fifty nine minutes. He’d been forced to sit next to the new kid Caboose. Easily the most annoying and dumbest person he’s ever had the misfortune to meet. He had taken pity on the boy’s parents as he tried to keep him from touching any of the chemicals and he had taken pity on himself while he tried to keep the idiot from messing with the experiment. Pushing the memory of the past lesson from his head he made his way over to his locker. On the way he had nodded a silent greeting to North and had insulted Donut and Lopez as he walked past. Withdrawing the books for the English class next and hastily avoiding the large Maine kid whose locker was next to his own.

Church pushed through the irritating lower years and walked over to Tucker. Tucker and Church both went to their next class together. It wasn’t much of a class but Church didn’t mind, it always gave him more time for his precious sleep. Tucker and Church playfully bantered as they walked to their classroom.

“Dude, it was all Simmons’s fault!” Tucker whined.

Church looked at him incredulously before saying, “Totally all your fault! Simmons only asked him if he wanted to come, you brought it up!”

At this point they had reached the outside of their classroom and were leaning against the brick walls opposite each other.

“Simmons was going to ask Sarge anyway! And don’t forget that it’s your fault Caboose showed up!” Tucker responded. Church was about to open his mouth and retort when Tucker stood a little taller and looked down the hallway.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Church asked him.

Tucker spoked to him without even looking at him, “Hot girl alert. One minute warning, ready your left arm!”

Church looked at him like he was crazy before saying, “Yeah! As if some hot girl will walk up to you and say ‘Blarg!’ Anyway, how would you know if a hot girl was coming?” Not bothering to heed Tuckers advice.

Tucker turned to Church and said, “Dude, it’s like a superpower! Like you being an asshole is a superpower and Caboose being –“

Church stoop up straighter when he recognized Carolina turning the corner. Carolina walked past them both without saying a word. One year ago before she’d met York, Tucker would have hit on her or tried one of his dumb pickup lines, or worse, a bow chicka bow wow. But now he wouldn’t try to pull anything on her. People who had met their soulmates counted as spoken for and generally were considered off limits.

As she walked away Church called to her, “Nice talking with you too cuz!” Carolina merely raised a hand in response as she walked off.

Bewildered, Tucker looked at his watch, “That’s not right! It hasn’t been a minute yet!”

“Maybe your superpower is broken, Tucker,” Church said to him as he took a step towards Tucker.

Tucker seemed to contemplate this new information before saying, “You know Church? You are one massive asshole.”

Church opened his mouth to respond in kind when a girl stormed around the same corner and down the hallway. Church was caught off guard and in the middle of the corridor, for a split second Church didn’t move out of surprise.

The girl wore mostly black and had long blonde hair. She also didn’t stop or slow down when she saw Church in her way.

She barged into him and kept on walking whilst saying, “Out of the way asshole!”

Tucker started laughing at Church’s misfortune and didn’t bother to move to help him. Church yelled at her back while she was moving away, “Hey! Fuck you bitch!”

Suddenly the girl stopped and snapped back around to face them. Tucker kept laughing but ended up offering Church a hand, which he accepted, and pulled his friend to his feet. The girl started stalking back towards Church, with a look on her face that Tucker could only describe as terrifying and threatening violence.

Tucker spoke up to Church, “Shit dude, you are so dead!”

She walked right up to Churched and pulled out his left arm suddenly. “Hey! What the fuck!?!” Church exclaimed.

She didn’t answer him and merely yanked his light blue shirt sleeve up his arm and turned it over. “Fucking score dude, fucking score!” Tucker said. The girl looked pained and Church only looked confused. Tucker added to his comment, “What? Still not convinced? Hold out your left arm.”

He directed the last part at the girl, she scowled at him but still stretched out her left arm. Using her right hand she brushed up the black jacket she was wearing to show her bare arm, no words.

“What? Really?” Church said.

“I’m pretty sure this isn’t the first time we’ve talked and as you’ve probably noticed she hasn’t exactly said ‘blarg’,” Tucker explained.

She looked really unhappy, hearing this news, and Tucker couldn’t exactly blame her. But she still put out her right hand to Church. Church shook it and said, “I’m Church and this idiot is my charming friend Tucker.”

Tucker raised his head at her. She sighed and said, “Call me Tex.” Tex pulled the sleeve back down over her arm and walked off down the corridor, seemingly less angry now.

Tucker grinned at Church and said, “You are so lucky! She is so hot!”

Church finally smiled back and replied with, “That was terrifying!”

“At least she’s hot,” Tucker consoled him. “With my luck, my true love is going to be an alien or something.”

Church went back to the side of the wall and leant on it again.


	2. Aliens and Misunderstandings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wash had an interesting time through life and holds an interesting stance on soulmates.
> 
> Church is a fucking asshole.

Wash’s head was kind of sore from the previous night. He scanned his brain hurriedly to search for any kind of reason for that. His neck felt a bit off and there was a small spot that seemed to feel sore for some reason. Wash opened his eyes gently and looked at the painting on the wall. That wasn’t right. His house had very few furnishings, only the essentials, and he most certainly did not have any art in his house. The bed felt both larger and more constricting than the one he used at home and he felt far warmer than any other winter morning. Washington rolled over onto his back and saw a ceiling fan. It was lazily spinning and Wash tracked its movement with his eyes, it was relaxing.

Then he saw black hair in the corner of his eye.

 

Wash grabbed his phone off of his desk and quickly read through the text from Connie.

_‘Come on Wash, have some fun!’_

Washington sighed and typed in his own message before hitting send.

_‘I am perfectly capable of having fun on my own, thank you very much.’_

Wash pulled his folder down over his phone and began to read through the notes. All the words and numbers began to blur together and he closed his eyes for a second to let his brain rest. For some reason his eyes resisted opening for a moment before his brain pulled rank and forced them to snap open and come to attention. He felt his phone vibrate through the folder and deftly slid the folder down the desk where it came to a stop beside his immaculately set out pens and equipment. He pawed at his phone and brought up his latest message from C.T.

_‘How much do you wanna bet?’_

Before he could so much as start to type a message a second one came through from her.

_‘Please. Chris is going and I don’t want you to feel like you’re missing out. Besides, you might actually have fun for a change.’_

Wash sighed at her repeated attempts to withdraw him from his house. It reminded him of those videos of people sucking poison out of veins. Not that he had a thing for sucking… or veins for that matter. Wash’s fingers fumbled all over the screen as he hastily formulated a reply.

_‘Thiird wheel ain’t fun., You guys have mor fun without me anywats, people say that I suck the jpy from the room.’_

Not his finest text ever, but most definitely not the worst one either. He felt fur brush against his lower leg and reached down beneath the table to grab at his cat. Epsilon attempted to make a dash to freedom but ended up right in his owner’s clasps. Epsilon made a half-hearted attempt at scowling at Wash and he tried to keep himself from smiling at his pet’s facial expression. He set Epsilon down onto the table and the cat immediately leapt away from the table and bounded down the hall, presumably to find a nice sunny spot to lay in.

Washington tried to relax into his chair, but he found it difficult to lay still while he could be putting in the effort and working. The phone buzzing distracted him from his own thoughts and he reached for the phone and pulled it up.

_‘From what I hear, York and North are going.’_

As he read it another message came through.

_‘Possibly Tex, Carolina, her cousin and some of his friends too.’_

_‘I hear that Kimball and her pals might make an appearance as well.’_

Wash ran a hand through his dishevelled blonde hair and sighed to himself. Maybe Connie was right. Maybe he was too strict and mature and never messed around. It wasn’t his fault that people weren’t using their time to the best possible efficiency. And maybe Wash just liked the colour grey. Besides, his cats kept him company and he could survive in the house without leaving for days on end. He finally realised what he was thinking about and abruptly decided that, yes, he would be going out for some fun tonight and no, he didn’t have to spend every waking hour working or studying.

_‘Waaaaaash. I’m getting bored.’_

_‘Waaaaaaaaash. Are you coming or not?’_

He glanced at the time and distastefully eyed the folder on the desk. Work could wait, he had friends to see.

_‘Yes.’_

_‘I knew it! Be ready, you could get lucky! ;P’_

Wash couldn’t remember the last time he’d looked at the words on his arm. They had always seemed to dim and diminish in importance in the face of work or study. Over time the turquoise colour of the writing had slowly blended in with a steel grey colour and got darker over time. Like he was neglecting it. But he could never forget those words, they were forever imprinted into the back of his mind.

‘Hey, wanna fuck?’

It was just so callous and rough. Wash couldn’t begin to see himself fitting in with someone who was so open in their thoughts and emotions. Someone who was the opposite of him. Connie, of course, had teased him endlessly about the words on his arm. He and Connie had been friends ever since the teacher placed them next to each other in year one. Back when things were simpler. Connie, Maine and Wash had been the power trio, the Triforce, the unstoppable triumvirate, the three musketeers. When the words appeared on Wash’s skin he just knew that it was going to be a rollercoaster of emotions. But for Maine, the words never came. His arm remained bare for the rest of his life. Connie had, obviously, gotten the first words Chris said to her and when she finally met him, four years later, they had hit it off spectacularly.

Wash was happy for C.T., she deserved to be happy and Wash would never get in the way of that. Maine had left the country a few months later, his parents getting a job offer they could not refuse. And so, Wash became the third wheel. One year later, when they met York, North, Carolina, South and Tex, Wash couldn’t help but feel a little left out. All of the others seemed to naturally hold a sense of purpose and talent. Wash fully supported York’s endeavours with Carolina and helped out when and where he could, whether that be cooking a meal that York was incapable of making or smuggling in ten kilos of flour through the window while Carolina wasn’t looking (don’t ask), Wash would always help out.

Connie started to drift away from the group a bit and spent more and more time with Chris and his friends. North and South continued their whole passive aggressive spat and Wash remained content with how things were going. But then the work load began to hit harder and Wash found himself staying up later and later to finish all his work on time. Comfort and soulmates were pushed to the back of his mind as he made way to focus entirely on his work.

That had been two years ago.

Now he was a single minded hard working machine. He went to the gym less and less each year and slowly began to limit himself to living in his house. But recently, after some prompting from North, he started to try to contact all his friends again. He’d found out that Maine was now living in England and was soon going to travel around the world and hoped to meet them again. York and Carolina’s relationship had progressed past the early stages and they always seemed far happier around each other. North and South were the same old same old, but Wash discovered that North had rescued a puppy one day after work on his way home and had nursed him back to full health. The puppy was now almost two years old and had been named Theta. Tex had met some guy named Church, who was apparently Carolina’s cousin. Wash had met him a few times and couldn’t believe that the two of them were related. Aside from the eye colour, they had nearly nothing in common and had he not been told he would never have believed that they were related.

Connie was doing well in class and had tried to keep in contact with Wash. She knew just how much work could consume him and, with his other friends, put together a party for all of them to gather and for Wash to relax for once.

Washington absentmindedly put on random clothes as he reminisced. Epsilon had somehow managed to sneak his way into the room while Wash wasn’t paying attention. Epsilon mewled loudly and crawled his way into one of Wash’s jean legs. Wash sighed and reached to pull him out.

 

The noisy party was hardly his scene and he pulled himself out of the way of the crowds and into a quieter room. Wash plonked himself down at one of the seats in the corner and scanned the rest of the room for faces he’d recognise. Wash was tired. Not only did he get to sleep at four the previous morning but he’d just been dragged through almost twenty minutes of dancing with Connie and South. Wash had forgotten that they’d had moves, shame he had absolutely no skill on the dance floor, the exterior quiet scene being more of his cup of tea. Wash spotted Locus moving silently through the crowds towards Felix, who was extravagantly waving his arms around as he told a story to Kimball and Palomo. Kimball was politely listening while Palomo was completely enthralled.

Wash kept looking. He spotted York and Carolina making their way outside to… Never mind. He probably didn’t want to think about that. There were two guys off by the ping pong table who seemed to be getting into a heated discussion. Wash focused his hearing and picked through the conversations overlapping each other to see if what they were saying was interesting. Needless to say, it was not.

“Why did you even come if you’re just going to lounge around like you do back at the apartment?” The taller higher strung one was asking.

The more relaxed of the two smugly held up his bottle of beer to his companion and replied, “Two words. Free. Beer.”

The last thing that Washington heard before turning elsewhere was, “Fatass.”

He caught a glimpse of long blonde hair waving as it left the room and he saw Church headed towards him. Church was clearly looking at him and seemed to beeline right at him. Wash sighed, shouldered his concerns and smiled light-heartedly.

Church opened his mouth and Wash knew he was going to regret this party. “I have a deal for you.”

Wash didn’t give him the time of day and instantly responded with a resounding, “No.”

“But you didn’t even hear it.” Church complained.

“And I don’t intend to.” Wash explained.

Church made a pained face. “Please just hear me out.”

“Fine.” There was nothing else to do at this party.

“I’ll pay you twenty bucks to go up to that guy there,” Church pointed at a black guy with dark hair and an aqua jacket and shirt. “And say ‘Blarg’.”

“What?” Washington asked him, thoroughly confused.

“Just go up to that guy, say ‘Blarg’ and you become twenty dollars richer.”

Wash carefully thought it through before slowly saying, “No.”

“What? Come on man. Please,” Church begged. “I promise not to bother you for a week starting now if you take it.”

“That has some merit to it.” Wash carefully stated.

“You say one word to a complete stranger and I’ll leave you alone for a whole week. I won’t bother you, I won’t talk to you and I won’t message you. What do you say?”

Wash glanced over at Church’s target before hesitantly looking back at Church’s face with a sigh. “I’ll do it.”

“Yes!” Church pumped his fist in the air and brought out his wallet. He pulled twenty dollars from the pouch and held it before himself. “I’ll pay you once you do it. I’ll be right here, I promise.” Wash warily eyed Church. “Trust me, I do not want to miss this.”

Wash stood up from the chair and slowly made his way over to the object of his mission. He procrastinated as much as he could along the way and dragged his feet along the ground. Wash made sure to give a wide berth around Palomo and Caboose, the two danger zones in the party. On his way there he bumped into Kimball and some guy wearing purple discussing the uses for various medicines. Wash apologised and extracted himself from the conversation to continue walking again.

 

“Matchmaking tonight are we, Church?”

Church glanced at his cousin over his shoulder with a lazy shrug. “It seemed like it would be fun.”

He became aware of Carolina crossing her arms and glaring at him. Where was York when you needed him? “That’s dangerous Church, and you know it.”

“It’ll be fine. They’re both big boys who can handle themselves,” Church placed the twenty dollar note back into his wallet before pocketing his wallet.

Carolina carefully watched Wash move towards Tucker. Sometimes Church was an idiot. This was extremely risky. Manipulating and exploiting the soulmate words was heavily looked down upon as it could lead people to have their emotions played with and could have disastrous results. Carolina only hoped that Church knew what he was doing.

 

Tucker was interrupted mid story to Donut and Chris by a hot blonde guy walking up to him. Ordinarily Tucker would avoid most strangers but this one felt different. His tousled blonde hair fell around a strong face with blue eyes. The stranger awkwardly scratched the back of his head, as though he were a nervous schoolboy giving a speech. Tucker raised an eyebrow and looked to Chris and Donut to see if they knew him. He could see the recognition in Chris’ eyes but Donut was simply staring at the newcomer.

The blonde grimaced before putting on a confident smile (maybe not as confident as Tucker’s own, but still pretty confident) and speaking the word that Tucker never thought he’d hear from a stranger, “Blarg.”

Absolutely stunned, Tucker opened his mouth and closed it again without making a sound. He discreetly pulled his sleeve up his arm oh so slightly. Just enough to witness the grey word slowly fade from his skin. Completely flabbergasted, Tucker blinked a few times while running through a few different pickup lines in his head. Once he finally settled on a winner he spoke once more, “Hey, wanna fuck?”

The stranger looked bewildered by the words coming out of Tucker’s mouth. While the question had shocked both Donut and Chris, the stranger was entirely poleaxed. The stranger swiftly brought up his own left arm and brought the sleeve down to see that it was clear. Understanding landed upon Donut and Chris’ faces and Donut peeled off from the group, unnoticed, to find and tell Grif and Simmons the good news.

Chris stepped forward and gestured between them. He pointed at Wash and said, “Washington meet Tucker.” Moving his arm to point at Tucker when he said his name. Chris repeated the gesture in reverse, commenting with, “Tucker, Wash.”

 

Carolina watched sceptically as Wash went up to Tucker and she worriedly looked over to Church, who was vividly watching events unfold. Wash said something, Carolina presumed it was ‘blarg’ and Tucker froze. Tucker seemed to have forgotten how to speak. Carolina would have found it funny if it hadn’t been such a crucial moment. Tucker looked at his arm and Carolina could see his brain make connections. Carolina watched with a smile on her face as Tucker said something to Wash’s utter surprise and turned to face Church. Church had the biggest shit-eating grin on his face and he looked at Carolina while Chris introduced the two soulmates.

“How did you know?” Carolina asked Church, intrigued.

“I didn’t. I just thought that there was a chance.” Church supplied her.

Carolina smiled at him and raised her beer bottle to him, he lightly tapped his own bottle to hers and it made a tiny satisfying ‘clink’ sound. As if it were celebrating with them. “Good job cuz, good job.”

 

Wash watched the fan spin around and around as the memories of the previous night came to him. He blushed a deep scarlet shade that accentuated his freckles as he remembered what he and Tucker did. Wash glanced beneath the blanket to double check. Yep, he was still wearing his clothes. Thank God, they hadn’t gone that far yet. Wash looked over at Tucker sleeping so peacefully beside him. As thankful as he was for having met his soulmate, he couldn’t quite remember the events leading up to it or why he talked to Tucker in the first place. Then it hit him.

Dammit! Wash forgot to collect Church’s money.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TIMELINE:  
> (The timeline is based on amount of years Church has spent with Carolina and the Director)  
> Church (5) moves in with the Director (?) and Carolina (7) - year 0  
> Carolina (10) gets the words on her arm - year 3  
> Church (10) and Tucker (10) get words on their arms - year 5  
> C.T. (14) meets Chris (Insurrectionist leader – 14) - year 8  
> Carolina (16) meets York (16) - year 9  
> Church (15) meets Tex (16) - year 10  
> Tucker (16) meets Wash (17) - year 11


	3. Lighter Than Air

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A quick and (hopefully) short follow-up about York and Carolina. The final part of Hi, let me see your left arm. Sorry for being a bit late.

Carolina made her way to the glowing club and pulsing noise. It was her one day a month that she could go out on her own for hours at a time, and she was not going to waste it. She eyed the people on the sidewalk and maintained a somewhat ready mentality in the event of a fight. As she got closer she could make out the neon letters on the sign, ‘Errera’.

She was slightly taller than normal, her brown boots adding a few centimetres to her height. Her blue miniskirt swayed with her hips as she took each step and her white tank top covered just enough to get past her father’s strict standards. Church had taken a hit for her to help her get out of the house, he’d distracted the Director as she left the house and Carolina doubted that she’d ever hear the end of it. Her red hair was pulled back into a ponytail.

She strode down the sidewalk, people instinctively moving out of the way. Carolina held herself in a way that exuded control and power, the fact that she was the Director’s daughter didn’t harm matters. Just fifteen minutes ago Carolina was ushering Church into the Director’s room and bidding a hasty retreat. She had faith that Tucker and Simmons could easily break Church out of his room while her father was distracted, so she didn’t feel too bad about Church’s willingness to jump in front of a bullet. The brown writing on her arm was out in the open for everyone to see, something that the director was rather unhappy about.

‘What the… Hey, give me back my lighter!’

The words burnt into her subconscious every waking hour, and many unconscious hours too. Carolina had constructed many dreams about her finding her perfect someone, her soulmate. Whenever she saw someone with a lighter she was extra careful to watch what they were like and what they did. It was like a self-fulfilling prophecy, she paid no attention to anyone without a lighter and therefore the only person she’d show interest in would be one with a lighter, but the only reason she only paid attention to those with lighters is because she knows the end result.

The club doors were open and Carolina could hear the music pumping out of it, the music was loud, even at this distance. The bouncer glanced at her before stepping aside, no one stood in the path of one of the biggest bad-asses in a town of bad-asses, not including Church of course. She walked up to the bar, the bartender was Four-Seven-Niner. No one knew her real name, just the false number she had given years ago when she first moved into town. Carolina had gotten to know her fairly well and had a rapport set up with her. The fact that Four-Seven-Niner owned Club Errera was a nice touch.

Four-Seven-Niner raised a hand to her in greeting before gesturing across the bar to another customer. Carolina got the message. Four-Seven-Niner moved to go and serve that other customer as Carolina sat herself at the bar, off to one side and with a view of the door. A cheery girl wearing yellow was sat beside her, Carolina tried not to notice the severe lack of decent clothing on the girl. Carolina ignored the pointed wink and when the girl got tired of the games she went over to another corner of the bar, one that housed the resident twins.

Several seats down from Carolina sat a guy with long brown pants and jacket, his short hair all over the place and spiked in the wrong places. He appeared to have some kind of drink in front of him and was merely holding it in two hands and staring intently at the surface of the liquid. The eye closest to Carolina, his right eye, held a twinkle of humour and good intent. His fingers tapped the glass with a kind of nervousness. Normally Carolina wouldn’t pay any attention to anyone without a lighter, but she felt drawn to this guy, lighter or no.

Carolina pulled her attention away from the stranger and back to Four-Seven-Niner, she was serving a drink to South and talking to a grumpy looking man speaking in Spanish. Over, past Four-Seven-Niner and her issues, around behind the bar was a large dance floor with pulsating lights and packed full with sweaty moving bodies, not exactly Carolina’s scene. She looked back to the stranger in brown and was surprised. He was looking at her with a teasing smile, right eye playfully shining. Carolina realized with some degree of surprise that his left eye was a milky white and had a large scar running from his cheekbone to just above his eyebrow.

Carolina fixed him with an amused stare with a light smirk. He looked to be about to bump down a few seats to sit beside her when his look suddenly hardened and he was looking past her. Carolina spun in her seat immediately. There were three large men standing behind her. She stood from her seat, but they still towered over her. Carolina glared at the three of them and they visibly shrinked at the intensity of it. But they stood tall again and took a step towards her, evidently they were from out of town.

Carolina was fully ready to thrown down against these three when, in a blur of motion, a brown figure interposed itself between her and the three men.

“Hey guys, we don’t want any trouble now, do we?” The stranger asked them. The three men seemed unimpressed by the teenager before them and didn’t back down. “I’d hate to have to clean your guts off the floor.” He jerked his head and somehow North and South had materialised behind them. He smiled winningly at them and tilted his head slightly to the left.

The three men moved for an escape route and made their way out of the bar area, probably to find an easier target. North and South glanced at the stranger before returning to their little corner of the bar, not to leave for another few hours. Carolina carefully took her seat again and faced the bar. The stranger took his seat beside her and sighed. She felt like she should say something to him, thank him perhaps. But before she could put a sentence together in her head he reached into his jacket.

He pulled out a silver lighter, emblazoned with ‘Club Errera’. He began to just flick the lighter on and off. Carolina snatched the lighter from his grip after the third time he turned it off. The guy jerked back in his seat and said, “What the… Hey, give me back my lighter!” as he realized what happened.

Carolina felt herself smile. A genuine smile of happiness.

“What’s a guy like you doing out here on your own?” She asked, feeling her joy infect all of her words.

Her soulmate jerked back a little at that and glanced at his arm. Recovering swiftly, he replied with a question of his own, “If I told you, you had a nice body, would you hold it against me?” After Carolina raised an eyebrow at him he held out a hand to her. “I’m York.”

Carolina easily placed her hand into his, it just felt right, like a snug jigsaw puzzle. “Carolina.”

York shook her hand and gave her a relaxed smile. He reached back over down the table to grab his glass again. “You know? I’m really glad I decided to play the hero and step in to save you from those three.”

“I could have taken them,” Carolina boasted teasingly.

York took a small sip of his drink before saying, “I’m sure you could have.”

“Are you drinking?” She questioned him.

York looked at the drink then to Carolina, then back to the drink. “I’m gonna go with no…” He slowly said with a (mostly) straight face.

“Is that legal? You can’t be much older than me!” Carolina replied, slightly accusatory.

York smoothly slid into his answer, “That would depend on how old you are. Besides, it’s totally fine. Want something to drink? I’ll pay.”

“I don’t think I’ll take you up on that.”

York smiled at her. “Don’t worry! I won’t kiss and tell. At least, not unless you want me to.”

Carolina smiled at his teasing tone, again feeling happier than she had in years. A warm glow spreading through her chest the more she talked with York. York stood up from his seat and graciously offered Carolina a hand.

York gave her the most honest smile she’d ever seen before asking her, “Will you hold this while I go for a walk?”

Laughing, Carolina slid the lighter into a pocket and accepted his offered hand. As she rose from the chair she felt happier than she had ever felt in her entire life, she knew in that moment that she would want to live her entire life with York. She felt full of happiness and love, each step feeling like she was floating off the ground. Like she was lighter than air.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> York is smooth as fuck.  
> (I have not personally tested the pickup lines he uses and would not recommend using them, but live your life your way, use them if you want)
> 
> Yes, underage drinking is a problem in the RvB world (or at least I assume it is). I did consider pushing their ages forward by two years but that would mean that I have to go back through my other stories and edit them, not to mention the timeline that I 'carefully constructed'.
> 
> This has been a fun short AU collection, I enjoyed writing it.


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